Random musings on history, politics, and more

A couple months ago, Reece Shearsmith did a one-off program for BBC radio on the history of sound effects in radio. A very interesting behind-the-scenes look at the art of making things sound like other things, the half-hour program – ‘Two Coconut Shells, a Blow Lamp, and a Raspberry’ – makes for some very interesting listening.

The “coconut shells” refer to the quite ingenious method of simulating the sounds of horses’ hoofbeats – a longstanding tradition paid homage to in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.